Wonderful Women Wednesday: Janice Stagnitto Ellis

Each week, the Archives features a woman who has been a groundbreaker at the Smithsonian, past or present, in a series titled Wonderful Women Wednesday.

Since 2009, Janice Stagnitto Ellis has been the senior paper and book conservator at Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Between 1992 and 1999, Ellis worked as a senior book conservator at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. 

In her current role at the Museum, Ellis supervises the day-to-day operations of the Paper Conservation Lab. She is responsible for the conservation, preservation, and storage of paper-based artifacts, and she assesses and treats objects that are being exhibited or loaned. In 2011, Ellis was the lead conservator in the extensive treatment of Thomas Jefferson’s Bible.

Ellis holds a Master of Science degree and certificate in library and archives conservation from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science in business administration and art history from Rutgers. 

A woman wearing gloves and a man work with a wooden tool on a desk.

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